A former Birmingham magistrate jailed for the manslaughter of a two-year-old girl has failed in a challenge to his conviction.

Rashpal Singh Chana, was imprisoned after his girlfriend’s daughter, Kristiana Logina, died of septic shock after she had been scalded in a boiling hot shower.

Doctors said the child’s life could have been saved if she had been taken to hospital.

Chana, 50, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for manslaughter while the child’s mother, Eva, received six years for the same offence and a second conviction of child cruelty in September 2011.

Chana challenged his conviction, but saw his case kicked out of the Court of Appeal by three top judges.

Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice Foskett and Judge Stephen Kramer QC in London, said there were no arguable grounds of appeal.

Chana claimed that he was hardly at the family home in Harborne in the 12 days between the shower incident and Kristiana’s death.

He said he didn’t even realise the girl had been burned, putting her injuries down to simple nappy rash.

He criticised the way his trial was conducted by his legal team and asked for fresh evidence to be admitted by the court.

He also criticised a previous ruling by the Court of Appeal, which had reinstated the trial after a decision had been made at the crown court that the prosecution should be stopped.

Rejecting the arguments, Lord Justice Richards said: “Those grounds can get the applicant nowhere. The decision of the Court of Appeal cannot be challenged in this court.

“Any appeal against that decision can only be made to the Supreme Court. Any such attempt would have been, in practice, doomed to failure.”

Continuing, the judge described Chana’s appeal bid as “naive” and said his attempts to adduce fresh evidence could not impact on the safety of the conviction.

Chana’s friends and family backed up his claim that he had not been regularly at the family home during the days when Kristiana was suffering with her injuries before she died in February 2010.

“It is all evidence of a kind that could have been adduced at the trial and we are not persuaded by the applicant’s attempt to blame his legal representatives for not obtaining or leading it,” said the judge.

Chana was a magistrate for 18 years.

He was also a leading scientist who was invited to Buckingham Palace in 2006 to meet the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.